


Fortuitous Omens

by hrhrionastar



Series: The Honeyverse [12]
Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: Episode: s01e22 Reckoning, Gen, Kittens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-12
Updated: 2012-05-12
Packaged: 2017-11-05 06:05:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/403217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hrhrionastar/pseuds/hrhrionastar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for <a href="http://legendland.livejournal.com/">legendland.</a> Nicholas wants to give his sister a kitten, just like Darken once gave Jennsen a kitten. Only hopefully not <i>just</i> like...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fortuitous Omens

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** reference to canon violence against a kitten

_picture prompt_ : [](http://s941.photobucket.com/albums/ad256/hrhrionastar/Legendland/?action=view&current=Kittens.jpg)

 

Darken swept into his study, robes furling, and made to throw himself into the chair behind his desk and brood about his latest quarrel with his wife.  
  
But a pair of feet protruded out from under the desk, idly kicking the heavy wood and sending bits of dirt to fall onto the rug. As Darken watched, one of the small booted feet knocked his chair back against the wall. The branch of candles flickered, and several went out.  
  
Even more ominously, a faint mewing issued from under the desk.  
  
"Nicholas?" Darken asked sharply. " _What_ are you doing?"  
  
His son wriggled out from under the desk and grinned at Darken, blue eyes bright and sparkling.  
  
"Father, Garie had kittens!" Nicholas exclaimed happily. "Want to see?"  
  
And that was how the great and terrible Darken Rahl ended up kneeling on the floor and admiring a litter of kittens.  
  
Darken summoned light to illuminate the space beneath the desk, and by the glow of the magic he and Nicholas could see Garie, Nicholas's cat, and three kittens: a gray one, an orange one, and a black one.  
  
Darken reached in to pick up the gray kitten, planning to move them all out from under his desk—why the cat had chosen his study in order to have kittens, not to mention what the guards had been thinking to permit the creature in the room in the first place, he had no idea—and Garie hissed at him.  
  
Nicholas petted the gray kitten carefully and twisted himself into a pretzel shape trying to peer into the tiny animal's closed eyes.  
  
"When they're big enough I'm going to let Yend have one," Nicholas said, as if he thought burdening Yend with a kitten was the greatest gift he could possibly bestow upon his friend. "Ethan doesn't like cats, but Yend does," he went on. "And then I'll give the orange kitten to Garen, because his fur matches her leathers."  
  
Darken laughed aloud, imagining Garen's pained expression when her prince presented her with a kitten.  
  
Ever since she had babysat for Nicholas when he was three, Mistress Garen had defended the prince of D'Hara from ignorant anti-Confessor prejudice as well as physical harm, insofar as it was possible to keep Nicholas from climbing trees and breaking his arm, or to keep the servants from gossiping about the magic that might yet turn their sweet prince into a monster.  
  
No matter how partial she was to the heir, however, no Mord'Sith would choose a pet as helplessly adorable as a kitten.  
  
"Do you think she won't like him?" Nicholas asked fearfully, stroking the orange fur of the kitten he planned to give to Mistress Garen.  
  
Those blue eyes widened, the prince's lip trembled, and Darken's heart melted.  
  
"She'll be delighted," he promised. "You have my personal guarantee."  
  
Nicholas was all smiles again.  
  
Darken noticed that Garie didn't hiss or scratch when Nicholas handled her kittens. Ungrateful creature. This was his study, not hers.  
  
Of course, "a cat may look at a king," as Kahlan would tease him. And have kittens under his desk, apparently.  
  
"I want to give Dara one of the kittens, too," Nicholas was saying earnestly. "Mother told me baby Dacey's too young for a pet, but Dara's nearly three, and I can help her, so that's okay, right?"  
  
Nicholas planned to give his sister a kitten.  
  
Memories assailed Darken. Of giving his own sister a kitten when she couldn't remember either her old life or the brother they both shared, the famous and universally beloved Seeker.  
  
Of waiting in vain for her return, knowing that she had chosen Richard over him.  
  
Strangling the kitten she'd named Mordy after Cara because his golden Mistress had told Jennsen that she was a Mord'Sith.  
  
Seeing the hatred in his sister's face after she'd stolen into his palace to kill him and his wife as they slept.  
  
His _sister._  
  
That was the emphasis Kahlan put on the word, when she was insisting that Jennsen should know her nephew and nieces, that she belonged with the Rahl family, that Darken should give the younger sister who had despised him another chance.  
  
His daughter Dara was also pristinely ungifted. That and the kitten seemed like too much of a coincidence.  
  
History would not repeat itself if Darken had anything to say about it.  
  
"Mother says black cats are unlucky," said Nicholas. "But I don't think that's fair. She can't help having black fur." He had the black kitten on his lap now, and it batted playfully at his heavy tunic with claws still too small to do any damage.  
  
"Father, do you think Mother will mind if I give Dara the black kitten?" Nicholas wanted to know. "She's so sweet, she can't be unlucky."  
  
"Your mother is not infallible," Darken replied, adding under his breath, "no matter what _she_ chooses to believe…"  
  
The other two kittens were curled together beside Garie, but the black one remained cuddled in Nicholas's arms. Darken ran one finger very gently along its spine, and was rewarded with a tiny mew.  
  
"Black cats are unlucky in the Midlands," Darken explained, "but in D'Hara they are a fortuitous omen."  
  
Nicholas wrinkled his nose at Darken's use of the word 'fortuitous,' and Darken clarified, "lucky." His son accepted the new word with the deep interest with which the young Rahl prince regarded every aspect of life.  
  
"Why are the Midlands and D'Hara so different?" Nicholas asked next. "Everything's opposite."  
  
"Not everything," Darken said instinctively, and then paused. Nicholas was right. He'd never thought of it that way before, but the Midlands were opposite D'Hara, like the same painting done in complementary colors.  
  
Like Darken and Kahlan—for every opinion they shared, there were several more subjects upon which they were diametrically opposed.  
  
Jennsen might be his sister, but he was not ready to trust her, no matter what Kahlan said.  
  
Darken supposed he should be grateful that Nicholas hadn't suggested giving a kitten to 'Aunt Jennsen.'  
  
Darken watched his son, trying to find the right words to show him the importance of keeping the peace in the empire he would one day inherit. Kahlan had once considered the unification of their countries impossible, and she still doubted. But Darken would prove her wrong yet—with Nicholas's help.  
  
"D'Hara and the Midlands are very different," Darken admitted. "Just like the kittens. But each is special in its own way."  
  
Nicholas nodded.  
  
Darken knew that his son already considered all three of the newborn kittens to be special, unique, and precious.  
  
Nicholas would find each innocent animal a safe and loving home.


End file.
